Here’s something you probably don’t know. County players from the North can claim up to £28 a week on food expenses from Croke Park. That’s £112 a month.
As an Irish News reader, and probably a GAA fan, will it bother you to learn county players can receive this stipend? Probably not.
Mercifully, the player’s lot has changed substantially in the last 20 years. County players are now guaranteed a set expense rate of 45p per mile. They are also fed after every training session. They receive more clothes and kit than they can ever wear. If they want tickets for games, they can get tickets for games. And that’s the way it should be.
In Ulster, every county boardwill spend at least £200,000 a year on its senior county football team. That’s a minimum spend.
People moan about how much the ‘mercenary’ manager costs. That’s usually a misnomer. In most cases, a group of businessmen, or the supporters’ club will cover the cost of the manager. The bulk of that £200,000 is spent on preparing the players.
Between mileage expenses, player grants and access to top class coaching and nutrition advice – county players are the envy of every other amateur athlete in the world. That’s right. The world.
However, here is the crazy thing in all this. Despite the fact that players are so well treated, the GAA has been giving the Gaelic Players’ Association €6m a year.
We need to call this situation out for what it is.
It is complete lunacy.
The origins of this senseless deal stems from poor leadership.
Terrified of the threat posed by the GPA, Croke Park took its cue from Neville Chamberlain and pursued a policy of appeasement. To keep the GPA quiet, they threw €6m at them.
While the GAA displayed woeful bargaining skills, it must be conceded the big cheque worked. The GPA, the former radical body that once talked openly of a players’ strike is now dead. That’s all gone. More importantly again for the GAA, the credibility and public support which the GPA once enjoyed has also evaporated.
While the GPA no longer carries any threat, the GAA has been left with a legacy issue.
Naturally enough, the GPA wants to keep getting its €6m a year.
But that can’t continue. It has to stop because the whole ethos of the GPA, and almost everything it funds and promotes, is inherently flawed.
Because let’s go back to basics.Let’s not forget why the GPA came into existence. It was born out of the fact that players were often treated shamefully. But as we now know, those days are over. The GPA won that war and everyone is happy that it did.
The problem is that the GPA has morphed into something that it was never meant to be, and has no need to be.
It spends colossal sums of money helping players with career guidance and personal development and dozens of other worthy initiatives, including those weird hurling games in America.
But we need to take stock. Why is the GPA spending mega bucks on helping players with their careers? The GPAjustifies the expense of their stunning array of development courses under the premise that playing county football and hurling has a detrimental effect on someone’s income.
The GPA will cite a report which backs up these claims. Of course, it needs to be stated that the GPA paid for the report which produced the findings which conveniently chime perfectly with its own agenda.
That said, and here is the message which needs to be played on a loudspeaker outside Croke Park,even if playing at county level did hamper someone’s career, it is not the prerogative of the GAA or the GPA to remedy that situation.
The GAA is a voluntary association. There is no obligation to take part. No one is forcing anyone to play. If you don’t like it – stop playing. It really is that simple.
Moreover, all this guff about players enduring these grim, joyless lives is also nonsense. If you don’t want your mileage expenses, your food expenses, your meal after every training session, your annual grant, and all the other perks –walk away. Not many do.
The GAA is not a welfare group. It is not a public body whose purpose is to help players get jobs. If you want career advice – go to a careers advisor.
Somehow this very basic truth seems to have been forgotten.The GAA is a sporting and cultural organisation. And for that simple fact alone, Croke Park should not be giving €6m to an organisation that is spending money on things that have got absolutely nothing to do with the primary objectives of the GAA.
It is time this madness ended because it is a grotesque waste of money, and an embarrassment to any normal GAA person.
